While my opinion of RoboCop 2 dramatically changed, RoboCop 3 is still a crappy movie made by well intentioned filmmakers. The story itself is fine but the loss of Peter Weller was felt and like most movies that add kids into the mix (Alien 3), it’s rarely a good thing.
As Collector’s Editions go from Shout Factory, this might be the weaker of the bunch (only by comparison to the others), but this RoboCop 2 does contain a few actual features including a nice audio commentary and five solid featurettes delving into the origins and making of the sequel.
Poltergeist II isn’t as good as the original, no surprise there, but there’s still some fun entertainment value amongst some truly creepy scenes even if the tone isn’t exactly consistent.
The Devil’s Dolls is a standard but effective enough horror flick with some OK performances and nice atmosphere. It doesn’t break new ground in the genre, both in terms of story and direction, but fans of the genre might get something out of it.
Black Christmas didn’t quite grab me as it has others, but there is certain creepiness and combined with a fun cast and some genuine scary moments here and there, along with a twist that’s ingrained in most people’s minds, the film at least was entertaining.
Dreamscape is a sometimes cheesy 1980s sci-fi thriller but incredibly fun featuring a great cast from a young Dennis Quaid to veterans Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer. Not sure how much replay value it has but it was enjoyable enough.
Bubba Ho-Tep is an oft fun little flick that has garnered cult classic status over the years and features a great performance by Bruce Campbell as well as Ossie Davis. I wasn’t as over the moon with it but on the whole, it’s a unique film with replay value.
The Exorcist III isn’t a great movie and can’t touch the original, yet it’s a big step up from the awful sequel and the performance from Brad Dourif and to some extent George C. Scott, is well worth the price of admission along with some genuinely creepy/scary scenes.
Psycho IV: The Beginning actually isn’t a half bad prequel/sequel and features fine performances from Anthony Perkins reprising his iconic role and Henry Thomas as his teenaged counterpart. For a TV movie, it’s well shot and the story is a nice culmination in the franchise following two sequels that were less than stellar.
Lady in White is a movie with a mish-mash of ideas from social commentary to supernatural thriller to crime mystery and in none of those respects entirely works. However, the performances are pretty good headlined by Lukas Haas and despite sluggish pacing, the film managed to keep me entertaining until the end.
Shout’s Collector’s Edition of Child’s Play might not be a homerun compared with their other CE’s, but it’s still a nice release with an improved video transfer, solid lossless audio and a nice selection of bonus features including a new commentary with Tom Holland and a couple nice featurettes.
This “Collector’s Edition” of Carrie from Shout Factory is pretty darn good for a pretty darn good movie by suspense-maestro, Brian De Palma and features amazing performances by Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie.
Writer/director Mark Pavia makes a valiant attempt with Fender Bender to create a throwback to the slashers of yesteryear and while there are a few touches to admire (scenes that remind you of Halloween in particular), the rest of the writing and plot points were utterly laughable and not in a good way.
John Carpenter’s The Thing is certainly one of the best sci-fi horror/thrillers out there and just might rank behind Alien and Aliens, though I still prefer those two. Where this succeeds, much like those two, is the claustrophobic atmosphere with the added subtext of paranoia.
Raising Cain isn’t high up compared with some of the other films by Brian De Palma even with the over-the-top performance by John Lithgow. However, this is a nice “Collector’s Edition” release by Shout Factory offering solid video/audio transfers and a good selection of bonus features.